Climate change: Five ways it’s already affecting the planet

FILE- Smoke billows from a chimney of a heating plant as the sun sets in Beijing in this file photo dated Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. U.N. climate talks being held in Bonn, Germany, are in gridlock Thursday May 24, 2012, as a rift between rich and poor countries risked undoing some of the advances made last year in the two-decade-long effort to control carbon emissions from fast-growing economies like China and India as well as developed industrialized nations that scientists say are overheating the planet.(AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

Climate change: Five ways it's already affecting the planet

Climate change remains controversial, with a significant number of Americans saying it's exaggerated and many lawmakers disputing the science. At the same time, climate scientists are nearly unanimous and have found new evidence that it has already begun, with the past decade the warmest ever recorded for global temperatures.That's having effects that can be seen from the Arctic Circle to Africa, including melting permafrost, more pollen and fewer butterflies.Below, five notable ways climate change can already be seen.Melting permafrost In …